After arriving at the door of Room 505, Jiang Yuening, just like before, took out her key, unlocked the door, and walked in.
She had thought Room 505 would be different from Room 303.
But strangely, the first thing she perceived when she pushed the door open was still that faint, fishy, foul odor, not any other scent.
Once again smelling this familiar smell, she couldn’t help but frown, feeling a bit puzzled.
She quickly walked into the restroom, only to see a scene identical to Room 303.
The missing person living in Room 505 seemed to have no concept of hygiene, not flushing the toilet after using it.
But when Jiang Yuening went to the living room and approached the comfortable soft bed, she saw another quilt folded into a neat, tofu-block shape.
Although this quilt wasn’t folded as precisely as the one from the missing person in 303, it was certainly up to the standard of online military training.
Two people in a row having this same habit immediately struck Sapphire as eerie.
Even if they were once classmates, it couldn’t be such a coincidence.
Even roommates as close as Lu Ren and Xu Wenxing didn’t have such nearly identical habits.
With this doubt in mind, Jiang Yuening looked at the bedside table, thinking surely this person couldn’t also like drinking beverages and prefer drinking only half of each, right?
Then, she saw exactly what she didn’t want to see.
Again, four beverage bottles. Again, electrolyte drink, plus coffee, plus green tea, plus orange juice.
Even the order of placement was exactly the same, unchanged.
If not for the differing amounts of liquid inside each, Jiang Yuening would have doubted she was confused and had never left Room 303.
On the bright side, at least now the situation seemed to have a slight lead.
Sapphire sighed, took out her mobile phone, and once again took photos of various things in the room, also recording a video.
After sending these to Director Xu, he quickly replied.
“It’s probably the beverages that are the problem. Maybe they contain some forbidden substance that causes mental instability.”
‘I don’t think that’s possible. People capable of this aren’t fools. They crave stimulation, not death,’ Sapphire replied. “Before I arrived, did other departments come to investigate?”
“Yes, but they only reviewed the footage. Because traces of magical activity were detected on-site, they directly transferred the matter to us, hoping we could be the first on-site investigators. They said they’d come after we finished looking.”
“I see… Then the liaison work is up to you, Director Xu.”
“No problem! You go ahead and act boldly! Leave this small matter to me!”
After saying this, Director Xu even sent a “May All Your Wishes Come True” sticker featuring a blooming lotus, seemingly to cheer Jiang Yuening on.
But upon seeing this sticker, Jiang Yuening fell silent for a few seconds, then silently long-pressed the screen and chose to delete the chat record containing that sticker.
‘Annoying. I don’t want to see that sort of thing.’
After the break from chatting with Director Xu ended, Jiang Yuening left Room 505 and headed towards the final room, 606.
Room 606 was of a higher standard than 303 and 505, more expensive, with better service.
Regarding this room’s situation, Jiang Yuening still held some anticipation.
As long as it wasn’t the same as the other two rooms and could provide her with some clues, she’d be quite satisfied.
Holding this thought, Jiang Yuening arrived at the door of Room 606, used the key to open it, and walked in.
Then, she once again smelled that irritating, fishy, foul odor.
“Tch.”
The moment she smelled it, Jiang Yuening suddenly felt there was little point in continuing the investigation.
She quickly went to the bathroom. Seeing the situation inside hadn’t changed much, she went straight to look at the bedside table by the comfortable softwood king-size bed.
As expected, there were still the same four beverage bottles from the other two rooms, the positions too lazy to change.
Just as Jiang Yuening was feeling irritated, taking out her phone, opening the video recording, planning to just go through the motions of this process and then report to Director Xu…
She noticed something slightly different.
On a chair in the living room, there was a whole box of glucose drinks.
She temporarily put down her phone, walked over, and opened the box of glucose.
Five glucose tubes. Three empty, two full.
“Hmm…”
Looking at this new, additional clue, Jiang Yuening slightly raised an eyebrow. She glanced back at the beverages on the bedside table, pondering the connection.
As she looked, she suddenly noticed that the remaining liquid in the beverages on Room 606’s bedside table seemed somewhat different.
Taking out her phone and comparing it with the beverage situations in Rooms 303 and 505, Jiang Yuening found that the beverages in Room 606 had even less liquid left.
No matter how she compared, it was several tens to one hundred milliliters less than the other two rooms.
‘Is this hinting at something…?’
Jiang Yuening couldn’t figure it out.
From the commonalities of the three rooms, they all seemed to need hydration desperately, hence buying so many beverages to drink by their beds.
Then, they all seemed to like taking only a few sips from each bottle, never finishing them.
Plus, not flushing the toilet after use…
Hmm…
After placing the glucose back on the chair, Jiang Yuening felt something was being connected, but she just hadn’t discovered it yet.
Director Xu’s report to her stated that all three had vanished inexplicably, leaving not a single trace of activity.
People from other departments had only seen the footage.
The investigation report was clear: the surveillance showed the three leaving their rooms in their outer clothes late at night, going out for three hours, and then returning to their rooms three hours later.
But when the attendant responsible for delivering breakfast knocked to ask if they wanted breakfast, the hotel discovered the three were not in their rooms.
That is to say, the point of their disappearance was during the period after they returned to their rooms…
…Wait?
Jiang Yuening suddenly thought of something.
She quickly recorded a video of Room 606’s situation, then took a large number of photos, specifically noting the presence of the glucose, and sent them all to Director Xu.
After Director Xu received her messages and confirmed everything was fine, Jiang Yuening said directly,
“Director Xu, send me the surveillance footage obtained from the other departments. I need to review it.”
“Is that necessary? The investigation report is fine. I’ve looked at it.”
“If Shadow Beasts weren’t involved, then of course the report would be fine. But since magical traces were detected on-site, the authenticity of the investigation report needs to be verified personally by us Magic Girls.”
“Alright. I understand what you mean. Wait a moment, I’ll send them to you now.”
Seeing Jiang Yuening’s firm attitude, Director Xu didn’t say anything more.
Ten minutes later, Director Xu sent all three surveillance videos to Jiang Yuening one after another, with a special instruction.
“Don’t disseminate them casually. The Kowloon Hotel is backed by a major taxpayer in City A. Causing a reputation problem would be difficult for us to handle.”
“I know.”
Casually replying, Jiang Yuening opened the first video and began watching.
[Author’s Note: The 404 room at the end of the previous chapter was 505. I, pig-nosed, typed it wrong. Sorry.]
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